ASX live updates: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market

Regional Australians are switching to a new mobile provider in droves following a deal in January.

Vodafone parent company TPG Telecom announced that 100,000 Australians living regionally had joined their service following a partnership with Optus.

In its latest half-yearly results, TPG Telecom said a strong regional push helped its service’s revenue grow to $2.06 billion for the second half of 2025.

Net profits after tax were $32m, an increase of $25m from the prior corresponding period.

TPG Telecom chief executive and managing director Inaki Berroeta said the company’s regional infrastructure-sharing agreement allowed for great mobile coverage across Australia and was helping to deliver more customers.

“Our mobile growth this half was the strongest since borders reopened post-Covid despite a reduction in international student numbers and was stronger than both our competitors across proprietary brands,” he said.

In late January, Optus and TPG Telecom announced a network-sharing agreement that has greatly boosted Vodafone’s regional coverage.

Mr Berroeta said the deal in part led to a “transformative” year for the phone and internet provider.

The board has declared an interim unfranked dividend of 9c a share.

Eagers Automotive climbed 12.9 per cent to an record high of $25.46 after the car dealership chain said its underlying operating profit rose 8.3 per cent to $197.7 million in the six months to June 30.

IDP Education had rocketed 32.5 per cent to a nearly three-month high of $6.015 after the international student placement company said it would engage in a multi-year transformation effort to reduce costs after Australia and key destination markets impose restrictions on foreign students.

On the flip side, Ramsay Health Care was down 11 per cent to $33.90 after the private hospital company posted weaker-than-expected margins in Australia and the UK.

Others gaining or losing on the back of earnings results included Nine Entertainment (down 9.1 per cent); South32 (down 5 per cent); and Lifestyle Communities (up 13 per cent).

Telix Pharmaceuticals had sunk 18.8 per cent to a more than one year low of $14.94 after US Food and Drug Administration identified manufacturing deficiencies for Telix’s potential new PET imaging agent.

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Sandfire Resources share slipped despite the copper miner reporting a return to profit.

Revenue rose 26 per cent to $1.18 billon as group copper-equivalent production rose 12 per cent to 152,400 tonnes - fractionally below guidance “as our team navigated a generational rain event in Botswana and associated flooding, and power outages at both Motheo and MATSA”.

Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rsoe 46 per cent to $528 million.

Profit rose to $90m, turning around a $19m from a year earlier.

Boss Brendan Harris said the results “reflect the quality of our operations and our proven operating and development credentials”.

“At Motheo, the successful ramp-up of operations delivered a number of production and financial records, including copper equivalent production of 58,300t and an underlying operations EBITDA margin of 60 per cent, he said.

“This strong result, an increasing level of consistency and predictability at MATSA, and generally good cost control at both operations, underpinned a 26 per cent increase in group sales revenue to a record $1.176b and a 46 per cent increase in underlying EBITDA to $528m.”

Copper-equivalent production is forecast to rise 2 per cent to 157,000t in FY26, within a range of 149,000t to 165,000t.

Sandfire’s share were down 1.8 per cent at 2pm AEST to $12.49.

Greatland Resources has unveiled a $337.3 million profit from the first seven months of operation at its Telfer gold mine.

Backed by Andrew Forrest, London-listed Greatland snapped up the famed Pilbara mine from Newmont in December last year. It made its ASX debut in June after an initial public offer priced at $6.60 a share.

The unaudited prelimiary full-year results released today showed revenue of $961.3m from an average realised gold price of $4785 an ounce for the 180,570oz sold.

It produced 198,319oz of gold and 8429 tonnes of copper over the period at all-in costs of $1849/oz.

Net cash flow came in at $601.1m, delivering a before-tax profit of $441.9m.

“Producing such a strong set of financial results from the first seven months of ownership of Telfer is a great credit to the significant efforts of our team,” said MD Shaun Day.

“Our focus continues to be on the delivery of our FY2026 operational plan and progressing the growth opportunities at Haverion and Telfer.”

The share market operator earlier this month ordered Greatland to explain why output forecasts were slashed not long after its ASX debut, causing $1 billion of shareholder value to evaporate in one day.

They have yet to stage any meaningful recovery and at 1pm AEST were sitting at $5.37 - down 4 per cent for the day and 22 per cent for the past month.

Bank of Queensland is considering the sale of its $3.8 billion equipment finance portfolio and has ditched key financial targets.

The loan book sale was touted as a manoeuvre to get the company out of a high risk, cyclical industry and deploy capital better, the bank told markets today.

A deal is scheduled to be inked by December — though there’s no guarantee it will happen.

Cash earnings after tax will grow between 9 to 12 per cent to be $375 million to $385m.

But there will also be $43m of post-tax impairments for branches, restructuring costs and an enforceable undertaking with AUSTRAC.

The company also ditched key 2026 financial year targets.

“We are fundamentally transforming the way we operate and how we allocate capital to support customer growth and deliver sustainable shareholder returns in a structurally challenged market,” BOQ boss Patrick Allaway said.

The bank has also announced a deal with IT business Capgemini for agentic artificial intelligence services in a bid to “digitise” processes.

That will include an AI academy and is targeted to save $30m.

Shares had dived 4.3 per cent to $7.54 by 12.45pm AEST.

Just days after reporting a stellar profit result, Subiaco-based West African Resources has entered a trading halt over a potential deal with the Burkina Faso government.

The miner today revealed it was preparing to announce a request from the government to acquire, “for valuable paid consideration”, an additional 35 per cent of subsidiary Kiaka, which owns the recently constructed Kiaka gold project.

First gold was poured only two months ago - three-and-a-half years after it bought the operation.

West African in June ceded an extra 5 per cent stake in Kiaka - as well as its Sanbrado and Toega projhects - amid a broader trend of resource nationalism sweeping West Africa.

Burkina Faso’s military junta now has a 15 per cent free-carry stake in all three mines.

“Kiaka will be a long-life, low-cost gold project averaging 234,000 ounce of gold production per annum for 20 years from 2025,” the miner’s website says.

Its shares last changed hands at $3.04.

They passed a fresh record of $2.90 on Tuesday after it reported that a run of record spot gold prices earlier this year has lit a fire under its half-year profit result.

It delivered a 4 per cent fall in total ounces sold — down from 101,954oz in the first half of the 2024 financial year to 98,178oz in the six months to the end of June this year.

Average prices rose from $US2199/oz to $3049/oz, up 39 per cent, while all-in costs of production rose only 12 per cent to $US1374/oz — including a one per cent hike in the Burkina Faso government’s royalty rate from the start of April.

But gold’s surge after US President Donald Trump sent tariff shockwaves around the world in April propelled West African’s profit 133 per cent higher to $214.6 million — up from $92.2m a year earlier. Total revenue was 39 per cent higher at $477.3m.

Qantas has relaunched its popular “double status credit points” offer for Frequent Flyer members on the same day it announces its annual profits.

This move appears aimed at encouraging more flight bookings while recognising customer loyalty.

Frequent Flyer members who book flights within the next seven days for travel between September 4 this year and August 22 next year can choose between earning double status credits or double points.

In the previous March promotion, about two thirds of participants opted for status credits over double points due to the perks tied to higher membership tiers, such as lounge access, priority boarding, and fast-track security lanes.

Qantas Loyalty CEO Andrew Glance said the offer is “one of our most highly anticipated offers of the year and a great way for members to unlock the travel benefits that they value most.”

He added: “Whether members want to fast-track their annual status to access hundreds of lounges, or boost their points balance to book their next reward seat or upgrade, this offer helps them get there sooner.”

In addition to doubling credits or points on new bookings, Qantas will gift bonus status credits next month automatically to members active in the program during the past 18 months, with the number varying by tier.

The airline has recently increased points required for flight redemptions and carrier charges, moves some critics see as significant devaluation of points.

Read the full report on Qantas’ $2.4b profit result here.

Shares in Minerals Resources are copping a beating in early trade after the lithium and iron ore miner swung to a staggering $904m loss for the full year.

Its shares had crashed more than 5.5 per cent by 11.45am AEST to $35.41.

The turmoil came after founder and CEO Chris Ellison conceded in a letter to shareholders that he’d ‘got it wrong’ on the lithium price, admitting ”I did not foresee that we’d face prices in the $US500-600/t range again in my lifetime”.

“Looking back on the last two years, I also acknowledge that we got the lithium price wrong, and our earnings and net debt levels have been greatly impacted,” he said.

Read the full story here.

On the mother of all reporting season days, the S&P/ASX200 is treading water and has shifted just 2 points lower to 8958.5 at 11.30am AEST

A massive 11.7 per cent gain by Qantas, a 32 per cent surge from IDP education and 15 pe rcent jump by Eagers Automotive were offset by hefty losses from Telix Pharma, Ramsay Healthcare, Nine Entertainment and IGO.

Only six of the 11 setcor were in the green, with energy, IT and health care stocks the worst performers.

The rare earths miner has emerged from a brief trading halt to reveal a $750 million capital raising and $75m follow-up share purchase plan.

Shares are set to be issued at $13.25, a 10 per cent discount on the company’s last trading price.

The cash will go towards its ‘Towards 2030 Strategy’ in a bid to crank up its downstream capacity at a crucial time for the commodity.

Rare earths have gained huge prominence in the past 12 months as China and the US seek to lock up their own supplies of the material used in magnets.

Chief executive Amanda Lacaze said it would give the company “firepower” to capitalise on the growing market.